The park boasts of a small museum which houses some stuffed specimens like the condor.

Roads lead right through an old lava flow of larger rocks ejected from the volcano's last eruption some 130 years ago.

Asteraceas grow right on the ground and are pollinated by bees and beetles.

This shrub with their bright-orange colors is the symbol flower for the hikers and climbers in the Ecuadorian Andes. It belongs to the Aster family and is called Chuquiragua. It is   also used as medicine by taking an infusion to help for kidney problems.

The park is covered with a tall grass vegetation, called locally pajonal and scientifically  classified as ichu stipu.

Insects as diverse as stick animals, butterflies and grasshoppers have their habitat there.

Horses live there wild and form several groups of a dozen or so with a dominant male as the head of each group. Those animals escaped the earliest Spaniards, who inroduced them to the American continent.

Native mammals found in the park  are the White-tailed Deer, Rabbit and Andean Fox.

Rio Pita drains the park cutting a canyon and flowing west to the Pacific ocean. Although forbidden kids and others try their luck at trout fishing.

Limpiopungo is a small paramo pond and a nesting site for Andean Gulls, which build ground nests among the grass on the tiny islets. The large Andean Gull is the only gull species found away from the Pacific coast.

  Gull, Duck,  Lapwing and shorebirds abound at the lake.

The park offers beautiful campsites with great views to the snow-covered peak of Cotopaxi.

A road leads up to 4600m, where you have to leave the car behind to climb up to Jose Ribas refuge, located at 4800m.

The volcano offers an unforgettable ice-climbing experience on its mighty glacier. Unfortunately, as anywhere else in the world, the ice melts away and less and less of the volcano are covered with it.